Theater Review: 'Carrie' still has cult status with musical

Thursday

May 22, 2014 at 1:25 PMMay 22, 2014 at 1:25 PM

By R. Scott ReedyWicked Local Arts Correspondent

When it comes to Broadway failures, “Carrie: The Musical” is the king – or maybe the prom queen – of all bombs. The show, based on Stephen King’s debut novel, opened on Broadway in May 1988 and closed after only 16 previews and five performances, losing a then-record $8 million and becoming one of the most legendary flops in Broadway history.But while other epic failures of its era, including “Nick & Nora” and “Legs Diamond,” were mostly forgotten, “Carrie” achieved a cult status. More people talked about it than could ever have actually seen it.Among those who continued talking about “Carrie” were its composer, Academy Award winner Michael Gore (“Fame,” “Terms of Endearment”), lyricist, Academy Award winner Dean Pitchford (“Fame,” “Footloose”) and book writer Lawrence D. Cohen, who not only adapted the King novel for the original 1976 Brian De Palma film, but also co-wrote the screenplay for the 2013 remake. The team had originally collaborated on the musical for the Royal Shakespeare Company, which intended the show to be its follow-up to “Les Miserables.” More than two decades later, the trio reteamed to retool “Carrie” for a new production that had a limited run off-Broadway in 2012.Now through June 7 at the Boston Center for the Arts, Boston’s SpeakEasy Stage Company is presenting the New England premiere of this production of the Maine-set musical about a teenage girl tormented at school by classmates for being different, and at home by a fundamentalist mother for wanting to be like everyone else. Thanks to telekinetic powers, however, Carrie White isn’t just your average high school senior. She may not be able to turn anyone on with her smile, but she can slam windows shut with an intense stare.As the show’s unorthodox leading lady, Elizabeth Erardi only tentatively conveys Carrie’s many moods. Thankfully, she brings clearer emotion to the music, from pop treacle like “Unsuspecting Hearts,” her duet with Shonna Cirone as the sympathetic gym teacher, to the plaintive ballad, “Why Not Me?” Erardi is especially good when paired with Speakeasy stalwart Kerry A. Dowling, who plays Margaret, Carrie’s time-hardened religious zealot of a mother, on “Evening Prayers” and “Stay Here Instead.” Dowling has this production’s strongest voice and lends it, along with her considerable skills as an actress, to one of the show’s best numbers, act two’s soaring “When There’s No One.” It is during this and Dowling’s other standout moments that the true dramatic potential of the material is realized.The rest of the cast – almost all either current students or recent graduates of the Boston Conservatory – does its best with ensemble numbers that play like nasty outtakes from “Fame.” But this isn’t the 1980s. Indeed, when the musical mean girls whip out their smartphones to shame the socially awkward Carrie on social media, it becomes clear that the story is now set in the present. Joe Longthorne, as Tommy, and Sarah Drake, as Sue, demonstrate appealing range as the high school sweethearts whose compassion for Carrie trumps their own desires. As selfish and sinister Chris, meanest of a mean bunch of bullies, Paige Berkovitz successfully makes her one-note character easy to hate.Director Paul Melone deserves credit for containing the camp, but there is only so much that can be done on that front when it comes to bringing his heroine’s supernatural powers to life on stage. When Carrie moves a table with the flick of her hand it elicits laughter, when it should build tension instead by reminding us that she is a lot more than just a wallflower.This mostly solid Speakeasy mounting will no doubt feed the enduring fascination ardent fans of Broadway folklore have with “Carrie.” But by the time the bucket of pig blood is poured over the unlikely prom queen’s head, even they may be ready to put the “Carrie: The Musical” yearbook on a shelf and leave it there."Carrie: The Musical"WHEN: Through June 7 WHERE: Calderwood Paviolion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont St., Boston TICKETS: Start at $25 INFO: 617-933-8600; www.SpeakEasyStage.com

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